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Egypt Postpones Trial of ‘Hasm’, ‘Liwa Al-Thawra’ Terror Suspects

A police vehicle patrols Cairo, Egypt September 21, 2019. (Reuters)
A police vehicle patrols Cairo, Egypt September 21, 2019. (Reuters)
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Egypt Postpones Trial of ‘Hasm’, ‘Liwa Al-Thawra’ Terror Suspects

A police vehicle patrols Cairo, Egypt September 21, 2019. (Reuters)
A police vehicle patrols Cairo, Egypt September 21, 2019. (Reuters)

A Cairo Military Court postponed Sunday the trial of 271 terrorist suspects to Monday.

The Public Prosecutor had ordered the defendants to be referred to the military judiciary after they were charged with “assuming command of and joining the Muslim Brotherhood’s terrorist Liwa al-Thawra and Harakat Sawa'd Misr (HASM) groups.”

They are also accused of committing 12 terrorist operations against police officers, as well as booby-trapping cars and monitoring public and economic installations and public figures in order to later commit hostile acts against them.

According to the probe, the defendants supplied the two groups with money, explosives, firearms, ammunition and other logistic support. They also committed several murders and attempted murders against officers and members of the police force in various provinces of the country.

Investigations also linked the case to leading Muslim Brotherhood members in Turkey.

“The fugitives abroad devised a terrorist plot to restructure the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, in cooperation with leading fugitives inside the country, in order to commit hostile acts against judicial and police officials, the armed forces and prominent state figures and economic installations,” the probe found.

They were indicted for assassinating a police captain, involvement in an ambush in Nasr City, which left several police members dead, attacking a police vehicle on the Fayoum highway and plotting to target Coptic places of worship.

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Syrian Interior Ministry Arrests ISIS Cell Responsible for Church Attack

People gather at Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus following the suicide bombing on Sunday, June 22, 2025 (EPA) 
People gather at Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus following the suicide bombing on Sunday, June 22, 2025 (EPA) 
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Syrian Interior Ministry Arrests ISIS Cell Responsible for Church Attack

People gather at Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus following the suicide bombing on Sunday, June 22, 2025 (EPA) 
People gather at Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighborhood of Damascus following the suicide bombing on Sunday, June 22, 2025 (EPA) 

Hours after Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa vowed that those involved in a “heinous” suicide attack on a Damascus church a day earlier would face justice, Syria’s Interior Ministry said authorities had arrested several suspects in connection with the attack.

The shooting and suicide bombing Sunday at the Mar Elias church in the Dweila district of the Syrian capital killed 25 people and injured 63 others, according to the Health Ministry.

“In coordination with the General Intelligence Service, the Ministry carried out security operations against ISIS-linked terrorist cells in the Damascus countryside, arresting a cell leader and five members, and killing two others affiliated with the terrorist attack on Mar Elias Church in Damascus,” the Syrian Interior Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

“During the raid, quantities of weapons and ammunition were seized, in addition to explosive vests and mines. A motorcycle bomb that had been prepared for detonation was also found,” it said.

On Monday, the Syrian President expressed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims of the church bombing.

He said “this heinous crime that targeted innocent people in their worship places reminds us of the importance of solidarity and unity –government and people- in confronting threats to our security and the stability of our country.”

Sharaa added, “Today, we all stand united, rejecting injustice and crime in all its forms. We pledge to the victims that we will work day and night, mobilizing all our specialized security services, to apprehend all those who participated in and planned this heinous crime and bring them to justice to face their just punishment.”

The attack is the first such bombing in Damascus since the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime. It raised fear among the people.

Commenting on the attack, a man in his 70s described the attack as “a huge and horrible strike,” stressing the need for “the authorities to tighten security measures on churches, all places of worship, and busy places.”

On Monday, Asharq Al-Awsat spotted heavy deployment of local security agents in the capital’s neighborhoods and major roads, amid heightened security measures.

Adbdulrahman Alhaj, a researcher in Islamic studies, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Interior Ministry statement that linked the attack to an ISIS suicide attack is a suggestion that the ministry’s spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba had mentioned in his Sunday press briefing.

Alhaj said he supports the ministry’s conclusions as ISIS had recently issued several threats signaling plans to confront the new regime in Damascus particularly, al-Sharaa.